Posted
by
timothy
on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @08:56AM
from the skipping-the-monkey-trial-entirely dept.

CSMatt points with this excerpt from the EFF's page: "Last week, the RIAA celebrated the signing of a ridiculous new law in Tennessee that says: 'Each public and private institution of higher education in the state that has student residential computer networks shall: [...] [R]easonably attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the institution's computer and network resources, if such institution receives fifty (50) or more legally valid notices of infringement as prescribed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 within the preceding year.' While the entertainment industry failed to get 'hard' requirements for universities in the Higher Education Act passed by Congress earlier this year, the RIAA succeeded in Tennessee (and is pushing in other states) with this provision that gives Big Content the ability to hold universities hostage through the use of infringement notices. Moreover, the new rules will cost Tennessee a pretty penny — in the cost review attached to the Tennessee bill, the state's Fiscal Review Committee estimates that the new obligations will initially cost the state a whopping $9.5 million for software, hardware, and personnel, with recurring annual costs of more than $1.5 million for personnel and maintenance."

TN colleges will need to "cut policing costs" and respond by limiting students' dorm access to 128 kbit/s (or thereabouts) such that downloading music or videos becomes impractical. TN administrators will argue that 128 kbit/s is "good enough" for accessing the required course-related websites (mostly text), and engineering or computer science students will need to apply for a professor-signed waiver to get faster access.

Those students will later come into positions of power, remember the hell of limited dorm access, and then repeal this ridiculous law so future students can access the net unencumbered.